Buffalo Wild Wings — Restaurant in Tukwila

Egregious food, but even more egregious service. I don't even know where to begin. Let me say I've worked in the service industry as a bartender for years, and at a nearby higher-volume restaurant to boot. Regarding the service: First off, it took me an extremely long time to be greeted despite there being two bartenders and the rail being half-empty; I had to grab my own menu, and I had to ask the bartender to wipe down my area that was covered in dried sauce, despite him having already greeted me by this point (and as such, I would have assumed he saw the mess). They forgot the side I had ordered when I finally received my food, I had to ask a passing server for a refill on my water who said "Sure" as if he were annoyed (how do you think I felt?!). The most surreal part of all of this is that the bartenders would come to my part of the bar on rare occasions and look all around as if they were checking in on people, but then wouldn't take note of my empty water, my bill, or other obvious needs. They wouldn't even ask anyone if they needed anything. And because they weren't noticing these things, I had to try desperately hard to make eye contact with them to flag them down, and this was seemingly impossible too. It truly felt like they were trying to avoid eye-contact with the guests. I shouldn't have to be the one to initiate every request and have a hard time getting their attention when the bar was as empty as it was. Even when I had waited a while to for the bartender to pick up my card that was CLEARLY on top of my receipt and ready to be picked up that he looked DIRECTLY at, the bartender couldn't help but chat it up with the other one instead of focusing on ringing me up. It really takes a lot for me to not tip, or to even tip less than 15% for that matter, but this was one of those scenarios. Importantly, the guy I sat next to had asked me earlier in the night "Did they take your order yet?", and then ended up talking to the assistant manager and walking out of the restaurant shaking his head. I now understand why.

And as for the food... it was just sad. The wings were quite literally crunchy, and not in a good, crispy way. More so, they were extremely overcooked and consisted of way too much gristle and tendon. On top of this, and I am not exaggerating - these were the driest wings I've ever had. It was truly a disgrace. You know the scene from Christmas Vacation where they are all eating the dried, crunchy, loud turkey? That's what these wings were like. You know it's bad when the fries were the best part of the meal, because BWW's fries have never been anything to write home about.

I had a bad experience at the Federal Way location last time I went there, but now have had an equally bad, if not worse, experience at the Tukwila location. And that is enough to make me never go to a BWW again. If you want better wings, go to literally any restaurant serving American fare and you will find them. It does not need to be a restaurant's specialty to exceed BWW's wing...

I write this review as someone who nearly exclusively takes out my meal.

Let's start with the good elements. The food is fine. It's bdubs. You likely know exactly what you're getting, and I my case... I like bdubs, and this location is fine. The sauces are as good as bdubs does, and their boneless (my favorite) wings are good. Thier location is convenient and easy to get to and park. And their staff, is friendly.

So why two stars? Well...the common complaints of portion sizes for sides and things exist... But my review is to point out the horrendous logistics and experience of taking out food here.

Every time, not nearly all the time or most of the time-every, single time you order for takeout, you will wait. Alot. Doesn't matter if you order hours ahead for a specific time, or hit the "ASAP" button on the app. You will wait.

It doesn't matter if you order on a busy Friday night, or mid afternoon with the staff casually sitting around...you will wait.

You'll be waiting for your food. You'll arrive, on time or minutes later than you requested pickup (cause you've done this before) and your food doesn't exist. So the staff (who again, is always nice) will go check the back. You'll be shocked to hear "it'll be a few minutes"... For the next 20-60 minutes. Sometimes though, you'll wait... And no one will come to the take-out/curbside desk...at all. You'll stand there waiting, as the staff goes about their tasks, while you try to make eye contact and gain their attention, to no avail. Eventually after 10-30 minutes of standing at the counter... Someone will come to bring some orders up, or restock some supplies... And your food was there the whole time and just... Waiting for you while you wait for it. Now, it's sad and cold.

So why do I keep coming back? Cause I like bdubs. I hate this location, Unfortunately, it's the only one around for me. I should go find a better, local wing place... And I have... But sometimes you want the bdubs sauce you love. I want to enjoy my local bdubs, but I just cannot. Which...

... Leads me to my final point. And ultimately what prompted this novella of a review. I can muse all day on what the problems are, or why... But I think on this last visit I had my suspicions confirmed. Somewhere up the chain, either a GM or Owner just don't care...or well, they do care about positive reviews, as evidenced by the attached photo of a raffle for cash money for each "very likely" positive review on the bdubs website. That's... So scummy. A "pay for positives" system, especially in this age of inflation? Sheeeessssh. I checked said website linked, and it doesn't have any evidence of it being a corporate policy, so there's something shady going on here.

I want to like my local bdubs, but I hate this bdubs. Maybe someday they'll get better? But if you're on the fence about your wings today, fall on the side...

Well we were hungry and this place just sounded good. Big mistake not reading the reviews online on maps and Google maps. To start there was a 20 minute wait and we said no problem it’s a Saturday. Second the tables were dirty and food wasn’t being picked up first a good 30 minutes. The server was nice and we got to sit and we told her the tables were dirty she came and cleaned up. Third waited again for 15 minutes til our waitress came to ask what we wanted to drink. One beer 2 sodas and I wasn’t sure then what I wanted but umm a water with ice would have been nice. Another 10 mins pass we get one soda no other drinks. One kid is drinking the other is watching and can’t share with siblings because she’s sick. Then I finally go to the server and ask if she can find out where our other drinks are now it’s been 25 mins and we didn’t even get the drinks. She finally comes back with one more not the beer no soda still. Okay we ask again then another I don’t even know how long later she brings the kid a drink finally onion rings small portion it was supposed to be a large. Very very oily and I don’t recommend them. Anyways total time we’ve been sitting down now is about 40 mins plus the 20 we waited. I go back and ask if anyone knows where my server went. No food still. Kids are starving well wait another 10 mins and we finally see our 30 buffalo wings that are dry! Even with the sauce thrown on them and cold and dry fries. We were disappointed she didn’t even ask if we needed anything more napkins perhaps or a refill ? There was no condiments on the table so kids got a ketchup which was empty from another table. She just brought one ranch when I asked for a mix. Overall the experience was absolutely terrible. It’s like she didn’t want to work and never came back to our table not once except to see if we were ready for our bill. This is the only time she smiled during our whole visit was to see if we were ready to take the bill and tip her. You know I have a bad habit of tipping but when the person is so rude and careless I don’t bother. So today for our cold late food and no help/ I had to go ask for the box again from server poor lady. This place gets a negative review and 0 stars if I could. Bathrooms were clean but when you turn the water on it makes a loud scary noise that was scaring the kids. It’s the pipes and something is wrong but bathrooms were clean. The Asian girl that helped us was one of the worst experiences I have had but she managed to start talking and smiling when she brought the bill which did it. So stay away from this place I will follow up with an office reviewing for this place I just don’t want other people getting the same type of bad service...